29 Jul Magic of Mind Mapping For Kids – Revisited

Magic of Mind Mapping For Kids – Revisited.

Back in 2009, I created a short video about the benefits of mind mapping for kids. It attracted thousands of views and still does. So why is this? Well, we all love our kids unconditionally, and we want to give them every chance in life. Some are fast learners and some have to work a little bit harder to get the same grades in school. However, mind mapping is a great leveler which can give all kids the opportunity to shine as brightly as the best kid in the class.

I started teaching my own kids how to create, and use, mind maps when they were only 6 or 7 years of age. But when I was growing up, I was not aware of this fantastic tool for structured thinking, effective note taking, and a prompt for recalling vast amounts of connected information. My first exposure to Mind Maps was when I started college as a mature student aged 25. But what a revelation they turned out to be.

You see, I was one of those students that studied all night, went to bed, and then woke up in the morning and everything from the night before was forgotten. I simply was not equipped with the tools to help me read, digest, and remember the huge amounts of information that is presented to us in High School. I did not have a trained mind or a photographic memory to help me. And, it was really, really frustrating. Does any of this sound familiar to you?

My daughters were lucky to have the opportunity to learn mind mapping at a young age from me. They are not kids anymore. My youngest daughter, Tammy, recently graduated from college and she not only used mind maps to help her learn, she teaches mind mapping to other students as well. At age 15, she decided to produce her school notes for her chosen subjects in mind mapping format and she now has summarized the entire junior, middle and high school curriculums for these subjects into mind maps.

In fact, she decided to make them available to other school kids online for a small fee about 5 years ago, and this has enabled her to pay for her own education since then. She just loves the fact that she has been able to use her skills in helping other kids to educate themselves, to educate herself without Mom or Dad having to step up to the plate. Here is a photo of Tammy presenting a copy of her Math Mind Maps to Tony Buzan, the inventor of mind mapping.

So why is mind mapping such a great learning tool for kids? The key here is that it allows kids to see information in context because of the visual format. Everything that is connected, sits somewhere along a single branch of a mind map. Every individual sub-topic has its own branch. By using images and color, the student can immediately see everything that is related. This means that kids are no longer trying to read and remember pages and paragraphs of linear text that may not show obvious connections.

For more information about Mind Mapping for Kids and to see some worked examples, click on the link below to view the full article on this topic.